SAN JOSE - The San Jose Earthquakes announced today that the club has signed midfielder Tighe Dombrowski, forward Roger Levesque and defender Chris Aloisi to new contracts for the 2005 season. Dombrowski, 22, and Levesque, 24, have signed to become developmental players and will again be roster-protected for the 2005 season, while Aloisi signs as a senior roster player. In keeping with club policy, terms of the deals were not disclosed.
Dombrowski spent the 2004 season as a developmental player on the Quakes roster, and enjoyed a successful rookie season, appearing in four MLS games while also seeing time in exhibitions against Sporting Club of Portugal and the Canadian National Team. Dombrowski appeared in all three of the Earthquakes 2004 U.S. Open Cup matches. The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee product was a three-year All Horizon League First Team selection while in college.
Levesque enters his third season with the Earthquakes after being selected in the third round of the 2003 MLS SuperDraft. The Portland, Maine native has spent parts of the past two seasons on loan with the Seattle Sounders of the USL First Division (formerly the A-League), helping Seattle to the championship game in 2004. He scored 10 goals and notched five assists for the Sounders the past two seasons. With the Quakes, Levesque spent much of 2003 recovering from a torn ACL injury before appearing in his first match on July 12. He played in two more matches that season while spending two months (August and September) on loan with the Sounders. Levesque did not see any MLS action in 2004. At Stanford, he was a two-time All-American and the 2001 Pac-10 Player of the Year.
Aloisi, 24, joined the Quakes this year in a Jan. 12 trade with the Los Angeles Galaxy and is coming off a successful rookie campaign as a developmental player in which he started three games for L.A., while also starting and playing 90 minutes in the Galaxy's U.S. Open Cup match against Minnesota. The Syracuse University product is a versatile defender who is capable of playing anywhere on the back-line. He was originally drafted in the sixth round of the 2004 MLS SuperDraft after being a two-time All-Big East selection at Syracuse.
